CLEVELAND,
Ohio -- (March 6, 2000) The Ohio wrestling team finished third this weekend at the Mid-American
Conference Championships held at the University of Buffalo. Central Michigan won their
third straight wrestling title, in a competition that featured eight participants. Eighteen
wrestlers qualified for the NCAA National Champions, including Ohio's Brad Wright, Dan
Bednar and Tim Courtad.
Junior Dan Bednar (197 lb) led the Bobcats with his major upset over Central Michigan's
Chris Vike, an All-American and defending champion, with a win by fall at 9:29 of the
match. Bednar had defeated Buffalo's Joe Downey 5-3 in overtime on Friday. He will
compete in Nationals in two weeks.
Senior Brad Wright (133 lb), who was the top-seed going into this weekend's
competition, defeated Central Michigan's Jordan Webster 3-0 on Friday. He beat
Buffalo's Shawn Kegel on Saturday to earn him the title and the NCAA Championship
qualification.
Top-seeded senior Tim Courtad (HWT), who was 24-1 in the regular season and ranked
11th in the nation, pulled no surprises by defeating Buffalo's Mike Garofalo, 8-3 and
Central Michigan's Jack Leffler, 3-1. Courtad had only lost once this season, and with his
MAC tittle will compete in the NCAA Championships.
Other winners for the Bobcats included Shane Hartzler (141 lb), Aaron Cooper (149 lb)
and Luke Moore (174 lb) who all had at least one win for Ohio.
The NCAA Championships will be held at the Keil Center in St. Louis, Mo. on March
16-18.
